We're coming into the unfortunate part of the football season when two things start happening that cause the average football fan to stop putting their full effort into Sundays; holiday obligations and their favorite team being eliminated from playoff contention. Neither of these things are good excuses for not putting forth at least a little bit of an effort.

Thanksgiving is a long day of friends, family and football. It's also very, very cold in much of the country right now, so you are going to need a warm drink you can slowly sip as you wait for your Cousin Doug to get the turkey fryer going outside or so help you, you're tailgating in Detroit, Dallas or Baltimore tomorrow.

Since the weekend before Thanksgiving is when a lot of people do practice runs of dishes they're making later in the week, this is a good sandwich for testing out the cranberries, maybe some new seasoning for your dressing, or the bread you plan on baking Thursday morning

As the season goes on, it's easy to get sick of the same old sour cream based dips, guacamole or hummus, and you don't always want a heavy baked spinach and artichoke dip made with cream cheese. The next best option for creaminess and taste? Ricotta.

A couple of weeks ago I got a request for a lean protein football grilling recipe and I immediately thought of one my favorite ways to make chicken skewers; Greek yogurt and the Middle Eastern spice mixture, za'atar.